Commonwealth Games investigated by local authorities
The Enforcement Directorate of India (ED) has officially registered a case against the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games for their violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and summoned Lalit Bhanot of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee
for questioning. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also confirmed their participation in the case after receiving 20 complaints regarding the Games, many of which concerned the overlay works carried out by the Central Public Works Department.
"The CBI is working in close coordination with the ED in connection with the case registered by the directorate under FEMA," said a statement. "The CBI is awaiting reports from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the comptroller and auditor general (CAG)
and the I-T department. The CAG has its own central technical examiners and will do a financial audit. If something crops up, the CBI will move in."
The CVC has confirmed the misappropriation of at least 8,000 Rupees and the premises of NJP activist Sudhanshu Mittal have been among those searches for evidence of further financial irregularities.
Lalit Bhanot, the Secretary-General of the CWG organising committee is suspected of having violated foreign exchange laws in the arrangements for the inauguration of the Queen’s Baton Relay last October in London. Bhanot made the news before the Games when
he remarked that foreigners’ standards of hygiene are ‘different’ than Indians, in response to the photos released of the filthy conditions of the athlete’s village.
On Wednesday, the New Delhi high court publicly stated that they would not interfere in the ongoing parallel investigations into the various violations perpetrated by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. Social advocate Ajay Agrawal and a group of
a retired bureaucrats had both simultaneously filed petitions to the high court seeking an independent inquiry into the corruption in various CWG projects. Justice Dipak Misra has said that the government has already appointed a committee for that purpose
and the petitions must raise the issue before that body.
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